LONDON:
Five former London police officers admitted on Thursday that they had sent each other grossly abusive racist messages on WhatsApp, which included references to Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex and other members of the royal family.
The five officers, all of whom are retired, were charged after an investigation by the BBC’s Newsnight program found the men had sent the messages between August 2018 and September 2022, a period in which they had all left the force.
Three of the posts contain racist remarks about Meghan, the wife of King Charles’ youngest son, Prince Harry. Meghan’s mother is black and her father is white.
One of these posts also included a photo of the late Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, while others referred to Charles’ eldest son and heir Prince William and his wife Kate, along with Rishi Sunak, Britain’s first Prime Minister of Color.
The former officers, in their 60s, pleaded guilty to sending abusive messages at a hearing in London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
“The racist and discriminatory content of these messages is absolutely abhorrent and given that the defendants once served as police officers, we recognize that this case may further damage confidence in the police,” said Commander James Harman, head of the anti-police squad. Corruption and Anti-Corruption Department of the Metropolitan Police. Abuse Command.
The London Army has been plagued by scandal in recent years and an independent review in March concluded it was institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic. The new chief, Mark Rowley, has promised to remove unqualified individuals from among the more than 43,000 officers and staff.
The five men had all worked in different departments of the police force, but had all served in the Diplomatic Protection Group, where a former member was convicted of murder and rape in the past year, and another was jailed for committing 24 rapes and other crimes. sexual offenses. over two decades.
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